Drink beer cheaper with a growler

By RACHEL WHARTON

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER|

Aug 25, 2008 | 5:01 PM

Growlers are the latest trend in brewing.

If you like fancy brews but cringe at the bar tab, drink up the city's newest beer trend: retro, refillable glass jugs for buying keg beer in bulk. Not only is it the only way to try some smaller-batch beers at home, says Jay Steinhauer, who helps sell them wholesale at American Beer Distributors in Brooklyn, but it's greener and cheaper, too. Think 64 ounces for $11, he says, instead of $6 for a pint. (Though you do pay a refundable deposit for the bottle.)

Known as growlers - beer geeks debate the 19th-century name's origins, but it might've been the hiss from the original metal pails - refillable bottles have been popular for a decade, says Steinhauer, but didn't really hit the city until Brooklyn's Beirkraft started filling them in 2006. In the past year a dozen others have followed suit: American Beer, bars like the Ginger Man, restaurants like Brooklyn's Fette Sau, Community Beverage beer outlet in Queens and the swanky beer room at the Bowery Whole Foods, which hopes to introduce smaller 32-ouncers this fall. One of the newest lineups is at Grab, a Brooklyn specialty food shop that just made room alongside the brie for five locally brewed kegs and bottles with the slogan "Grab-N-Growl." Pick one up with some sausage and cheese, and you'll be a hit at next weekend's Labor Day picnics.

These city shops offer growler service to go (though at the restaurants, they're mostly used for table service).

Most also have a least three or four beers on tap to choose from - kegs change from week to week - with well-stocked bars like the Ginger Man (whose growlers are among the most beautiful) and Pacific Standard offering some of the largest selections.

The specialty beer and cheese shop Bierkraft also has many brews from which to choose, and sometimes enhances its drafts by giving them an extra but of flavoring.

There is usually a one-time deposit for a bottle, often around $4, but the bottle is yours to keep or you can return it to get your deposit back. Plus, Vox Pop, the Brooklyn coffee and beer shop, will also allow you to bring in any other store's growler to refill or trade in for a pint.